Grihastha. The Second Stage Of Abundance.

by Sandra Radja

As I thought about the angle I wanted to write the second stage of life in, I thought about what Dr Svoboda mentioned as your home being a second skin extension and the health of a home will create the health in your environment.

I used to cheat on myself a lot. When I was younger it was fun to live rugged and unruly. I liked having my clothes in one backpack, and having minimal furnishings wherever I lay my hat. I was in the period of unattachment, reading more than I had the experience to understand, and engaging in way too much booze to tell everyone who would listen about my newfound book knowledge, of my risky adventures in food and my near death bus travel.

It’s true, sure, that home is within, but I think that’s true when your immunity is strong. When it isn’t, and you have no home, you invite more parasites to your door than you can fend off….and I don’t only mean the little critter variety. And I realized, most importantly, that I was creating the habit of accepting less. And something needed to change.

Graha means house and stha means to stand/be established in. So the second stage of life is about creating your own story of being here and enacting your Dharma. It’s a time to accumulate Artha or wealth to live well. It is important to be the best you can be, according to Dr Svoboda, so that the Universe may benefit. Reading a book on prosperity, even Deepak Chopra recommends flying first class the whole way. Treat yourself like a precious object, and it will make you strong.

The Tiny House Movement is a most imaginative middle finger to the ridiculous housing prices, especially here in Australia. I just love the imagination that is coming through with people realizing that to live well, you really don't need a lot of space. This is a true second skin of knowing how to find joy in the small things in life - to appreciate a great view, to use your imagination and manifest beauty, to concentrate activities to the things you love doing, and to truly relax and spend time with people you love.

I had a chat to an artist painter I met over the weekend. I went to her showing and there were few people there. Her paintings were beautiful, kind of art naïve style, simple, bright and symbolic. The conversation started light hearted and then she disclosed that her paintings weren’t selling because she thought people now prefer to buy large HD televisions and new cars. She said she was broke and lived in an artist community close by which claimed a lot of broke artists. I referenced my time in Portland, OR which was also known for drawing the “starving artist” but that they used their resourcefulness and ignited the food truck industry. I was proud to tell her they were doing well and with a little creative out of the box thinking you could find your way. I then heard many reasons why that would not be possible.

And I thought, we have a large community of people that are supposed to be retiring from society but they are clinging onto the second stage because there is a gap in financials. And I wondered about the mind- set that got someone there. If you want to get into a fired up discussion with a new age lover, talk about material possessions. It’s not wrong to live well, the issue is in the attachment to the property because as Dr Svoboda says “live as close to reality as possible, because if not, reality will come to live with you, when it’s most inconvenient.” However, what it does teach you is how to treat yourself well; it creates the habit of abundance. And reality hits hard home when you are supposed to be in the third stage of life scrambling at the second.

And just think. The more abundance you make, the more you can create a better life for others too.